As part of the Saudi Arabian government’s multimillion dollar lobbying campaign against the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), it has paid various lobbying firms to recruit U.S. veterans to testify against JASTA before Congress. Some of the lobbying groups and their contractors failed to notify the Justice Department about the foreign source of their funding for months at a time, violating a WWII-era law initially intended to track Nazi propagandists. Also, many of the vets they paid to participate in the anti-JASTA campaign were not made aware that their trips to Washington were paid for by Saudi Arabia.

JASTA gives American citizens who are victims of a terrorist attack on American soil, as well as surviving family members, the right to sue a foreign country found to support the attack. Under JASTA, Saudi Arabia should not be allowed to avoid liability, because unclassified documents demonstrate a link between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorists.

Among the groups Saudi Arabia paid to recruit veterans are Qorvis MSLGroup, Flywheel Government Solutions, Capitol Media Group, Glover Park Group, the CGCN Group and the McKeon Group. According to Bloomberg, Capitol Media Group received more than $350,000 from the Saudi Embassy but waited three months and funded three vet trips to D.C. before filing the appropriate documentation with the U.S. government (bloomberg.com). This was in violation of the federal law requiring those working for foreign governments to register within 10 days of initial contact and before any of the work even begins. At this point, the lobbying firms who failed to comply with federal regulations have not faced any legal consequences.

The deception of United States veterans is another covert behavior that Bloomberg reports on. While some vets stated they had been informed that Saudi Arabia was funding their travels and accommodations, other said they were deliberately misled, including brothers Dan and Tim Cord and former U.S. Marine Sergeant David Casler. Casler shared, “It was very evident that they weren’t forthcoming; they weren’t telling us the whole truth. They flat-out lied to us on the first day with the statement: ‘This is not paid for by the Saudi Arabian government.’”

As well as funding these veteran testimonies against JASTA and failing to report them appropriately to the Justice Department, Saudi Arabia has paid lobbying firms to write opinion pieces against JASTA in U.S. media outlets and on behalf of government officials.

The Miller Firm has a proven track record of winning judgments from state sponsors of terrorism. We are dedicated to holding the Saudi Arabian government accountable and are presently accepting clients who were injured or families who experienced terrible loss on September 11, 2011. Please call 1-800-882-2525 and ask to speak to attorneys David Dickens, Timothy Litzenburg, Michael Miller or Nancy Miller. Or, they can be reached as well at [email protected] or [email protected].